The Histories of the Apostolic Age (see pp. 189
sqq.); the Introductions to the Commentaries on Romans
(mentioned p. 281), and a number of critical essays on the origin and
composition of the Church of Rome and the aim of the Epistle to the
Romans, by Baur (Ueber
Zweck und Veranlassung des Römerbriefs,1836; reproduced in his Paul, I., 346 sqq.,
Engl. transl.), Beyschlag (Das geschichtliche Problem des Römerbriefs
in the "Studien und Kritiken" for 1867), Hilgenfeld (Einleitung in das N.
T., 1875, pp. 302 sqq.), C. Weizsäcker (Ueber die
älteste römische Christengemeinde, 1876, and his Apost. Zeitalter, 1886, pp.
415–467).

Adolf Harnack:
Christianity and Christians at the Court of the Roman Emperors
before the Time of Constantine. In the "Princeton Review," N. York,
1878, pp. 239–280.

J. Spencer Northcote and W. R.
Brownlow (R. C.): Roma
Sotterranea, new ed., London, 1879, vol. I., pp.
78–91. Based upon Caval. de
Rossi’s large Italian work under the same title
(Roma, 1864–1877, in
three vols. fol.). Both important for the remains of early Roman
Christianity in the Catacombs.

Formby: Ancient Rome and
its Connect. with the Chr. Rel. Lond., 1880.

Keim: Rom. u. das Christenthum. Berlin, 1881.

[MAP INSET] From "Roma Sotteranea," by Northcote and
Brownlow.

The City of Rome.

The city of Rome was to the Roman empire what Paris
is to France, what London to Great Britain: the ruling head and the
beating heart. It had even a more cosmopolitan character than these
modern cities. It was the world in miniature, "orbis in urbe."
Rome had conquered nearly all the nationalities of the then civilized
world, and drew its population from the East and from the West, from
the North and from the South. All languages, religious, and customs of
the conquered provinces found a home there. Half the inhabitants spoke
Greek, and the natives complained of the preponderance of this foreign
tongue, which, since Alexander’s conquest, had become
the language of the Orient and of the civilized world.482482 Friedländer, I. 372
sqq. The palace
of the emperor was the chief centre of Oriental and Greek life. Large
numbers of the foreigners were freedmen, who generally took the family
name of their masters. Many of them became very wealthy, even
millionnaires. The rich freedman was in that age the type of the
vulgar, impudent, bragging upstart. According to Tacitus, "all things
vile and shameful" were sure to flow from all quarters of the empire
into Rome as a common sewer. But the same is true of the best elements:
the richest products of nature, the rarest treasures of art, were
collected there; the enterprising and ambitious youths, the men of
genius, learning, and every useful craft found in Rome the widest field
and the richest reward for their talents.

With Augustus began the period of expensive
building. In his long reign ofpeace and prosperity he changed the city
of bricks into a city of marble. It extended in narrow and irregular
streets on both banks of the Tiber, covered the now desolate and
feverish Campagna to the base of the Albanian hills, and stretched its
arms by land and by sea to the ends of the earth. It was then (as in
its ruins it is even now) the most instructive and interesting city in
the world. Poets, orators, and historians were lavish in the praises of
the urbs
aeterna,

"qua nihil posis visere majus."483483 See some of these eulogistic
descriptions in Friedländer, I. 9, who says that the
elements which produced this overwhelming impression were "the
enormous, ever changing turmoil of a population from all lands, the
confusing and intoxicating commotion of a truly cosmopolitan
intercourse, the number and magnificence of public parks and buildings,
and the immeasurable extent of the city." Of the Campagna he says, p.
10: "Wo sich jetzt eine
ruinenerfüllte Einöde gegen das Albanesergebirge
hinerstreckt, über der Fieberluft brütet, war
damals eine durchaus gesunde, überall angebaute, von Leben
wimmelden Strassen durchschnittene Ebene."See Strabo, v. 3, 12

The estimates of the population of imperial Rome
are guesswork, and vary from one to four millions. But in all
probability it amounted under Augustus to more than a million, and
increased rapidly under the following emperors till it received a check
by the fearful epidemic of 79, which for many days demanded ten
thousand victims a day.484484 Friedländer, I. 54
sqq., by a combination of certain data, comes to the conclusion that
Rome numbered under Augustus (A. U. 749) 668,600 people, exclusive of
slaves, and 70 or 80 years later from one and a half to two
millions. Afterwards the city grew again and reached the
height of its splendor under Hadrian and the Antonines.485485 Friedländer, I. 11:
"In dem halben Jahrhundert von
Vespasian bis Hadrian erreichte Rom seinen höchsten Glanz,
wenn auch unter den Antoninen und später noch vieles zu
seiner Verschönerimg geschehen ist."

The Jews in Rome.

The number of Jews in Rome during the apostolic
age is estimated at twenty or thirty thousand souls.486486 By Renan,
L’Antechrist, p. 7; Friedländer, I.
310, 372; and Harnack, l.c., p. 253. But Hausrath,
l.c., III. 384, assumes 40,000 Jews in Rome under
Augustus, 60,000 under Tiberius. We know from Josephus that 8,000 Roman
Jews accompanied a deputation of King Herod to Augustus (Ant.
XVII. 11, 1), and that 4,000 Jews were banished by Tiberius to the
mines of Sardinia (XVIII. 3, 5; comp. Tacitus, Ann. II. 85). But
these data do not justify a very definite calculation. They all spoke
Hellenistic Greek with a strong Hebrew accent. They had, as far as we
know, seven synagogues and three cemeteries, with Greek and a few Latin
inscriptions, sometimes with Greek words in Latin letters, or Latin
words with Greek letters.487487 Friedländer, III.
510: "Die Inschrift sind
überwiegend griechisch, allerdings zum Theil bis zur
Unverständlichkeit jargonartig; daneben finden sich
lateinische, aber keine hebräischen."See also Garrucci, Cimiterio in
vigna Rondanini, and the inscriptions
(mostly Greek, some Latin) copied and published by
Schürer, Die
Gemeindeverfassung der Juden, etc., pp. 33
sqq. They inhabited the fourteenth region, beyond
the Tiber (Trastevere), at the base of the Janiculum, probably also the
island of the Tiber, and part of the left bank towards the Circus
Maximus and the Palatine hill, in the neighborhood of the present
Ghetto or Jewry. They were mostly descendants of slaves and captives of
Pompey, Cassius, and Antony. They dealt then, as now, in old clothing
and broken ware, or rose from poverty to wealth and prominence as
bankers, physicians, astrologers, and fortunetellers. Not a few found
their way to the court. Alityrus, a Jewish actor, enjoyed the highest
favor of Nero. Thallus, a Samaritan and freedman of Tiberius, was able
to lend a million denarii to the Jewish king, Herod Agrippa.488488 Josephus, Ant. XVIII. 6,4.
Comp. Harnack, l.c., p. 254. The
relations between the Herods and the Julian and Claudian emperors were
very intimate.

The strange manners and institutions of the Jews,
as circumcision, Sabbath observance, abstinence from pork and meat
sacrificed to the gods whom they abhorred as evil spirits, excited the
mingled amazement, contempt, and ridicule of the Roman historians and
satirists. Whatever was sacred to the heathen was profane to the
Jews.489489 Tacitus, Hist. V. 4:
"Profana illic omnia quae apud nos sacra;
rursum concessa apud illos quae nobis incesta."Comp. his whole description of the Jews, which is a strange
compound of truth and falsehood. They were regarded as enemies of the human
race. But this, after all, was a superficial judgment. The Jews had
also their friends. Their indomitable industry and persistency, their
sobriety, earnestness, fidelity and benevolence, their strict obedience
to law, their disregard of death in war, their unshaken trust in God,
their hope of a glorious future of humanity, the simplicity and purity
of their worship, the sublimity and majesty of the idea of one
omnipotent, holy, and merciful God, made a deep impression upon
thoughtful and serious persons, and especially upon females (who
escaped the odium of circumcision). Hence the large number of
proselytes in Rome and elsewhere. Horace, Persius, and Juvenal, as well
as Josephus, testify that many Romans abstained from all business on
the Sabbath, fasted and prayed, burned lamps, studied the Mosaic law,
and sent tribute to the temple of Jerusalem. Even the Empress Poppaea
was inclined to Judaism after her own fashion, and showed great favor
to Josephus, who calls her "devout" or "God-fearing" (though she was a
cruel and shameless woman).490490 "Poppaea Sabina, the wife of
Otho, was the fairest woman of her time, and with the charms of beauty
she combined the address of an accomplished intriguer. Among the
dissolute women of imperial Rome she stands preëminent.
Originally united to Rufius Crispinus, she allowed herself to be
seduced by Otho, and obtained a divorce in order to marry him.
Introduced by this new connection to the intimacy of Nero, she soon
aimed at a higher elevation. But her husband was jealous and vigilant,
and she herself knew how to allure the young emperor by alternate
advances and retreats, till, in the violence of his passion, he put his
friend out of the way by dismissing him to the government of Lusitania.
Poppaea suffered Otho to depart without a sigh. She profited by his
absence to make herself more than ever indispensable to her paramour,
and aimed, with little disguise, at releasing herself from her union
and supplanting Octavia, by divorce or even death." Merivale, Hist.
of the Romans, VI. 97. Nero accidentally kicked Poppaea to death
when in a state of pregnancy (65), and pronounced her eulogy from the
rostrum. The senate decreed divine honors to her. Comp. Tac.
Ann. XIII. 45, 46; XVI. 6; Suet., Nero, 35. Seneca, who detested the Jews (calling
them sceleratissima gens), was constrained to say that this
conquered race gave laws to their conquerors.491491 "Victi victoribus leges dederunt."Quoted by Augustin (De Civit. Dei, VI. 11) from a lost
work, De Superstitionibus. This word received a singular illustration a few years
after Seneca’s death, when Berenice, the daughter of
King Agrippa, who had heard the story of Paul’s
conversion at Caesarea (Acts 25:13, 23), became the acknowledged
mistress first of Vespasianus and then of his son Titus, and presided
in the palace of the Caesars. Titus promised to marry her, but was
obliged, by the pressure of public opinion, to dismiss the incestuous
adulteress. "Dimisit invitus invitam." Sueton. Tit., c.
7; Tacit. Hist., II. 81.

The Jews were twice expelled from Rome under
Tiberius and Claudius, but soon returned to their transtiberine
quarter, and continued to enjoy the privileges of a religio
licita, which were granted to them by heathen emperors, but were
afterwards denied them by Christian popes.492492 The history of the Roman Ghetto
(the word is derived from ﬠדּגָ, caedo, to cut
down, comp. Isa. 10:33; 14:12; 15:2; Jer. 48:25, 27, etc., presents a
curious and sad chapter in the annals of the papacy. The fanatical Pope
Paul IV. (1555-’59) caused it to be walled in and shut
out from all intercourse with the Christian world, declaring in the
bull Cum nimis: "It is most absurd and unsuitable that the Jews,
whose own crime has plunged them into everlasting slavery, under the
plea that Christian magnanimity allows them, should presume to dwell
and mix with Christians, not bearing any mark of distinction, and
should have Christian servants, yea even buy houses." Sixtus V. treated
the Jews kindly on the plea that they were "the family from which
Christ came;" but his successors, Clement VIII., Clement XI., and
Innocent XIII., forbade them all trade except that in old clothes,
rags, and iron. Gregory XIII. (1572-’85), who rejoiced
over the massacre of St. Bartholomew, forced the Jews to hear a sermon
every week, and on every Sabbath police agents were sent to the Ghetto
to drive men, women, and children into the church with scourges, and to
lash them if they paid no attention! This custom was only abolished by
Pius IX., who revoked all the oppressive laws against the Jews. For
this and other interesting information about the Ghetto see Augustus J.
C. Hare, Walks in Rome, 1873, 165 sqq., and a pamphlet of Dr.
Philip, a Protestant missionary among the Jews in Rome, On the
Ghetto, Rome, 1874.

When Paul arrived in Rome he invited the rulers of
the synagogues to a conference, that he might show them his good will
and give them the first offer of the gospel, but they replied to his
explanations with shrewd reservation, and affected to know nothing of
Christianity, except that it was a sect everywhere spoken against.
Their best policy was evidently to ignore it as much as possible. Yet a
large number came to hear the apostle on an appointed day, and some
believed, while the majority, as usual, rejected his testimony.493493Acts 28:17-29.

Christianity in Rome.

From this peculiar people came the first converts
to a religion which proved more than a match for the power of Rome. The
Jews were only an army of defense, the Christians an army of conquest,
though under the despised banner of the cross.

The precise origin of the church of Rome is
involved in impenetrable mystery. We are informed of the beginnings of
the church of Jerusalem and most of the churches of Paul, but we do not
know who first preached the gospel at Rome. Christianity with its
missionary enthusiasm for the conversion of the world must have found a
home in the capital of the world at a very early day, before the
apostles left Palestine. The congregation at Antioch grew up from
emigrant and fugitive disciples of Jerusalem before it was consolidated
and fully organized by Barnabas and Paul.

It is not impossible, though by no means
demonstrable, that the first tidings of the gospel were brought to Rome
soon after the birthday of the church by witnesses of the pentecostal
miracle in Jerusalem, among whom were "sojourners from Rome, both Jews
and proselytes."494494Acts 2:10:οἱ
ἐπιδημοῦντεσ
Ῥωμαῖοι,
Ἰουδαῖοι
τε καὶ
προσήλυτοι
. Sojourners are strangers (comp. 17:21, οἱ
επιδημοῦντες
ζένοι), as
distinct from inhabitants (κατοικοῦντες, 7:48; 9:22; Luke 13:4). Among the Hellenistic Jews in
Jerusalem who disputed with Stephen were Libertini, i.e.,
emancipated Roman Jews, descendants of those whom Pompey had carried
captive to Rome, Acts 6:9. In this case Peter, the preacher of the
pentecostal sermon, may be said to have had an indirect agency
in the founding of the church of Rome, which claims him as the rock on
which it is built, although the tradition of his early visit (42) and
twenty or twenty-five years’ residence there is a long
exploded fable.495495 Given up even by Roman Catholic
historians in Germany, but still confidently reasserted by Drs.
Northcote and Brownlow, l.c. I., p. 79, who naively state that
Peter went to Rome with Cornelius and the Italian band in 42. Comp. on
this subject §26, pp. 254 sqq. Paul greets among the brethren in Rome some
kinsmen who had been converted before him, i.e., before 37.496496Rom. 16:7, "Salute Andronicus
and Junias (or Junia), my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners who ... have
been in Christ before me." If Junias is masculine, it must be a
contraction from Junianus, as Lucas from Lucanus. But Chrysostom,
Grotius, Reiche, and others take it as a female, either the wife or
sister of Andronicus. Several
names in the list of Roman brethren to whom he sends greetings are
found in the Jewish cemetery on the Appian Way among the freedmen of
the Empress Livia. Christians from Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, and
Greece must have come to the capital for various reasons, either as
visitors or settlers.

The Edict of Claudius.

The first historic trace of Christianity in Rome
we have in a notice of the heathen historian Suetonius, confirmed by
Luke, that Claudius, about a.d. 52, banished
the Jews from Rome because of their insurrectionary disposition and
commotion under the instigation of "Chrestus" (misspelt for
"Christus").497497 Sueton., Claud., c. 25:
"Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue
tumultuantes Roma expulit." The Romans
often confounded Christus (the Anointed)
andChrestus (from χρηστός, useful, good), and called the
Christians χρηστιανοί, Chrestiani. Compare the French form
chrétien. Justin Martyr uses this etymological error
as an argument against the persecution of the Christians for the sake
of their name. Apol. I., c. 4 (I. p. 10, ed. Otto): Χριστιανοὶ
εἶναι
κατηγορούμεθα,
τὸ δὲ
χρηστὸν
μισεῖσθαι
οὐ
δίκαιον. He knew, however, the true origin
of the name of Christ, I.c. 12: Ἰησοῦς
Χριστός, ἀφ’
οὖ καὶ
τὸ
Χριστιανοὶ
ἐπονομάζεσθαι
ἐσχήκαμεν
. Tertullian says that
the name Christus was almost invariably mispronounced
Chrestus bythe heathen. Apol., c. 3; Ad Nat., I.3.
This mistake continued to be made down to the fourth century,
Lactantius, Instit. Div., IV. 7, and is found also in Latin
inscriptions. Renan derives the name Christianus from the Latin (like
Herodian, Matt. 22:16, Pompejani, Caesareani), as
the derivation from the Greek would require Χρίστειος
(Les âpotres, p. 234). Lightfoot
denies this, and refers to Σαρδιανὸς, Τραλλιανός(Philippians, p.16, note 1); but Renan would regard
these nouns as Latinisms like Ἀσιανός
(Acts 20:4, Strabo, etc.). Antioch, where the name
originated (Acts 11:26), had long before been Romanized and was famous
for its love of nicknames. Renan thinks that the term originated with
the Roman authority as an appellation de police. The other two
passages of the N.T. in which it occurs, Acts 26:28; 1 Pet. 4:16, seem
to imply contempt and dislike, and so it is used by Tacitus and
Suetonius. But what was originally meant by the heathen to be a name of
derision has become the name of the highest honor. For what can be
nobler and better than to be a true Christian, that is, a follower of
Christ. It is a remarkable fact that the name " Jesuit,"which was not
in use till the sixteenth century, has become, by the misconduct of the
order which claimed it, a term of reproach even in Roman Catholic
countries; while the term " Christian"embraces proverbially all that is
noble, and good, and Christ-like.

This commotion in all probability refers to
Messianic controversies between Jews and Christians who were not yet
clearly distinguished at that time. The preaching, of Christ, the true
King of Israel, would naturally produce a great commotion among the
Jews, as it did at Antioch, in Pisidia, in Lystra, Thessalonica, and
Beraea; and the ignorant heathen magistrates would as naturally infer
that Christ was a political pretender and aspirant to an earthly
throne. The Jews who rejected the true Messiah looked all the more
eagerly for an imaginary Messiah that would break the yoke of Rome and
restore the theocracy of David in Jerusalem. Their carnal
millennarianism affected even some Christians, and Paul found it
necessary to warn them against rebellion and revolution. Among those
expelled by the edict of Claudius were Aquila and Priscilla, the
hospitable friends of Paul, who were probably converted before they met
him in Corinth.498498Acts 18:2; Rom. 16:3. An
unconverted Jew would not have taken the apostle under his roof and
into partnership. The appellation .Ἰουδαῖος
often signifies merely the nationality (comp. Gal.
2:13-15). The name Aquila, i.e., Eagle, Adler, is still common among
Jews, like other high sounding animal names (Leo, Leopardus,
Löwe, Löwenherz, Löwenstein, etc.).
The Greek Ἀκύλας was a transliteration of the Latin, and is probably
slightly altered in Onkelos, the traditional author of one of the
Targums, whom the learned Emmanuel Deutsch identifies with Aquila
(Ἀκύλας, סליקﬠ in
the Talmud), the Greek translator of the Old Testament, a convert to
Judaism in the reign of Hadrian, and supposed nephew of the emperor.
Liter. Remains (N. York, 1874), pp. 337-340. The name of
his wife, Priscilla (the diminutive form of Prisca), " probably
indicates a connection with the gens of the Prisci, who
appear in the earliest stages of Roman history, and supplied a long
series of praetors and consuls." Plumptre on Acts,
18:2.

The Jews, however, soon returned, and the Jewish
Christians also, but both under a cloud of suspicion. To this fact
Tacitus may refer when he says that the Christian superstition which
had been suppressed for a time (by the edict of Claudius) broke out
again (under Nero, who ascended the throne in 54).

Paul’s Epistle.

In the early part of Nero’s reign
(54–68) the Roman congregation was already well known
throughout Christendom, had several meeting places and a considerable
number of teachers.499499Rom. 1:8; 16:5, 14, 15,
19. It was in view of this fact, and in prophetic
anticipation of its future importance, that Paul addressed to it from
Corinth his most important doctrinal Epistle (a.d. 58), which was to prepare the way for his long
desired personal visit. On his journey to Rome three years later he
found Christians at Puteoli (the modern Puzzuolo at the bay of Naples),
who desired him to tarry with them seven days.500500Acts 28:13. Puteoli was, next
after Ostia, the chief harbor of Western Italy and the customary port
for the Alexandrian grain ships; hence the residence of a large number
of Jewish and other Oriental merchants and sailors. The whole
population turned out when the grain fleet from Alexandria arrived.
Sixteen pillars still remain of the mole on which St. Paul landed. See
Friedländer, II. 129 sq.; III. 511, and Howson and Spence on
Acts 28:13. Some thirty or forty
miles from the city, at Appii Forum and Tres Tabernae (The Three
Taverns), he was met by Roman brethren anxious to see the writer of
that marvellous letter, and derived much comfort from this token of
affectionate regard.501501Acts 28:15. The Forum of Appius
(the probable builder of the famous road called after him) is denounced
by Horace as a wretched town "filled with sailors and scoundrel
tavern-keepers." Tres Tabernae was a town of more importance, mentioned
in Cicero’s letters, and probably located on the
junction of the road from Antium with the Via Appia, near the modern
Cisterna. The distances from Rome southward are given in the Antonine
Itinerary as follows: "to Aricia, 16 miles; to Tres Tabernae, 17 miles;
to Appii Forum, 10 miles."

Paul in Rome.

His arrival in Rome, early in the year 61, which
two years later was probably followed by that of Peter, naturally gave
a great impulse to the growth of the congregation. He brought with him,
as he had promised, "the fulness of the blessing of Christ." His very
bonds were overruled for the progress of the gospel, which he was left
free to preach under military guard in his own dwelling.502502Phil. 1:12-15; Acts
28:30. He had
with him during the whole or a part of the first Roman captivity his
faithful pupils and companions: Luke, "the beloved physician" and
historian; Timothy, the dearest of his spiritual sons; John Mark, who
had deserted him on his first missionary tour, but joined him at Rome
and mediated between him and Peter; one Jesus, who is called Justus, a
Jewish Christian, who remained faithful to him; Aristarchus, his
fellow-prisoner from Thessalonica; Tychicus from Ephesus; Epaphras and
Onesimus from Colossae; Epaphroditus from Philippi; Demas, Pudens,
Linus, Eubulus, and others who are honorably mentioned in the Epistles
of the captivity.503503Col. 4:7-14; Eph. 6:21; Philem.
24; Phil. 2:25-30; 4:18; comp. also 2 Tim. 4:10-12. They formed a noble band of evangelists and
aided the aged apostle in his labors at Rome and abroad. On the other
hand his enemies of the Judaizing party were stimulated to
counter-activity, and preached Christ from envy and jealousy; but in
noble self-denial Paul rose above petty sectarianism, and sincerely
rejoiced from his lofty standpoint if only Christ was proclaimed and
his kingdom promoted. While he fearlessly vindicated Christian freedom
against Christian legalism in the Epistle to the Galatians, he
preferred even a poor contracted Christianity to the heathenism which
abounded in Rome.504504Phil. 1:15-18. Comp. Lightfoot
in loc.

The number which were converted through these
various agencies, though disappearing in the heathen masses of the
metropolis, and no doubt much smaller than the twenty thousand Jews,
must have been considerable, for Tacitus speaks of a "vast multitude"
of Christians that perished in the Neronian persecution in 64; and
Clement, referring to the same persecution, likewise mentions a "vast
multitude of the elect," who were contemporary with Paul and Peter, and
who, "through many indignities and tortures, became a most noble
example among ourselves" (that is, the Roman Christians).505505Ad Cor., ch. 6.
The πολὺ
πλῆθος
ἐκλεκτῶν
corresponds precisely to the "ingens multitudo"of Tacitus, Ann.
XV. 44.

Composition and Consolidation of the Roman
Church.

The composition of the church of Rome has been a
matter of much learned controversy and speculation. It no doubt was,
like most congregations outside of Palestine, of a mixed character,
with a preponderance of the Gentile over the Jewish element, but it is
impossible to estimate the numerical strength and the precise relation
which the two elements sustained to each other.506506 Comp. my Hist. Ap.
Ch., p. 296 sqq. Dr. Baur attempted to revolutionize the
traditional opinion of the preponderance of the Gentile element, and to
prove that the Roman church consisted almost exclusively of Jewish
converts, and that the Epistle to the Romans is a defense of Pauline
universalism against Petrine particularism. He was followed by
Schwegler, Reuss, Mangold, Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Holsten, Holtzmann.,
and also to some extent by Thiersch and Sabatier. But he was opposed by
Olshausen, Tholuck, Philippi, De Wette, Meyer, Schott, Hofmann, in
favor of the other view. Beyschlag proposed a compromise to the effect
that the majority, in conformity with Paul’s express
statements, were Gentile Christians, but mostly ex-proselytes, and
hence shared Judaizing convictions. This view has been approved by
Schürer and Schultz. Among the latest and ablest discussions
are those of Weizsäcker and Godet, who oppose the views both
of Baur and Beyschlag. The original nucleus was no doubt Jewish, but
the Gentile element soon outgrew it, as is evident from the Epistle
itself, from the last chapter of Acts, from the Neronian persecution,
and other facts. Paul had a right to regard the Roman congregation as
belonging to his own field of labor. The Judaizing tendency was not
wanting, as we see from the 14th and 15th chapters, and from allusions
in the Philippians and Second Timothy, but it had not the character of
a bitter personal antagonism to Paul, as in Galatia, although in the
second century we find also a malignant type of Ebionism in Rome, where
all heretics congregated.

We have no reason to suppose that it was at once
fully organized and consolidated into one community. The Christians
were scattered all over the immense city, and held their devotional
meetings in different localities. The Jewish and the Gentile converts
may have formed distinct communities, or rather two sections of one
Christian community.

Paul and Peter, if they met together in Rome
(after 63), would naturally, in accordance with the Jerusalem compact,
divide the field of supervision between them as far as practicable, and
at the same time promote union and harmony. This may be the truth which
underlies the early and general tradition that they were the joint
founders of the Roman church. No doubt their presence and martyrdom
cemented the Jewish and Gentile sections. But the final consolidation
into one organic corporation was probably not effected till after the
destruction of Jerusalem.

This consolidation was chiefly the work of
Clement, who appears as the first presiding presbyter of the one Roman
church. He was admirably qualified to act as mediator between the
disciples of Peter and Paul, being himself influenced by both, though
more by Paul. His Epistle to the Corinthians combines the distinctive
features of the Epistles of Paul, Peter, and James, and has been called
"a typical document, reflecting the comprehensive principles and large
sympathies which had been impressed upon the united church of Rome."507507 Lightfoot, Galat., p.
323.

In the second century we see no more traces of a
twofold community. But outside of the orthodox church, the heretical
schools, both Jewish and Gentile, found likewise au early home in this
rendezvous of the world. The fable of Simon Magus in Rome reflects this
fact. Valentinus, Marcion, Praxeas, Theodotus, Sabellius, and other
arch-heretics taught there. In heathen Rome, Christian heresies and
sects enjoyed a toleration which was afterwards denied them by
Christian Rome, until, in 1870, it became the capital of united Italy,
against the protest of the pope.

Language.

The language of the Roman church at that time was
the Greek, and continued to be down to the third century. In that
language Paul wrote to Rome and from Rome; the names of the converts
mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of the Romans, and of the early
bishops, are mostly Greek; all the early literature of the Roman church
was Greek; even the so-called Apostles’ Creed, in the
form held by the church of Rome, was originally Greek. The first Latin
version of the Bible was not made for Rome, but for the provinces,
especially for North Africa. The Greeks and Greek speaking Orientals
were at that time the most intelligent, enterprising, and energetic
people among the middle classes in Rome. "The successful tradesmen, the
skilled artisans, the confidential servants and retainers of noble
houses—almost all the activity and enterprise of the
common people, whether for good or for evil, were Greek."508508 Lightfoot, l.c., p. 20.
See especially the investigations of Caspari, in his Quellen zur Geschichte des
Taufsymbols, vol. III. (1875), 267-466.
According to Friedländer, I. 142, 481, Greek was the
favorite language at the imperial court, and among lovers.

Social Condition.

The great majority of the Christians in Rome, even
down to the close of the second century, belonged to the lower ranks of
society. They were artisans, freedmen, slaves. The proud Roman
aristocracy of wealth, power, and knowledge despised the gospel as a
vulgar superstition. The contemporary writers ignored it, or mentioned
it only incidentally and with evident contempt. The Christian spirit
and the old Roman spirit were sharply and irreconcilably antagonistic,
and sooner or later had to meet in deadly conflict.

But, as in Athens and Corinth, so there were in
Rome also a few honorable exceptions.

Paul mentions his success in the praetorian guard
and in the imperial household.509509Phil. 1:13; 4: 22. The
πραιτώριον
embraces the officers as well as the soldiers of the
imperial regiments; οἱ
εκ τῆς
καίσαρος
οἰκίας may include high functionaries and courtiers as well as slaves
and freedmen, but the latter is more probable. The twenty names of the
earlier converts mentioned in Rom. 16 coincide largely with those in
the Columbaria of the imperial household on the Appian way.
Comp. Lightfoot, Philipp., p. 169 sqq., Plumptre, Excursus to
his Com. on Acts, and Harnack, l.c., pp. 258 sq.
Harnack makes it appear that the two trusty servants of the Roman
church, Claudius Ephebus and Valerius Bito, mentioned in the Epistle of
Clement to the Corinthians, c. 63, belonged to the household of the
emperor Claudius.

It is possible, though not probable, that Paul
became passingly acquainted with the Stoic philosopher, Annaeus Seneca,
the teacher of Nero and friend of Burrus; for he certainly knew his
brother, Annaeus Gallio, proconsul at Corinth, then at Rome, and had
probably official relations with Burrus, as prefect of the praetorian
guard, to which he was committed as prisoner; but the story of the
conversion of Seneca, as well as his correspondence with Paul, are no
doubt pious fictions, and, if true, would be no credit to Christianity,
since Seneca, like Lord Bacon, denied his high moral principles by his
avarice and meanness.510510 See above, § 29, p.
279, especially the essay of Lightfoot quoted there. Harnack
(l.c., p. 260) and Friedländer regard the
acquaintance of Paul with Seneca as very improbable, Plumptre as
probable. An epitaph from the third century was found in Ostia which
reads: D M. M. Anneo. Paulo. Petro. M. Anneus. Paulus. Filio. Carissimo. See De Rossi in
the Bullet. di archeol. christ., 1867, pp. 6 sq., and Renan,
L’Antechrist, p. 12. Seneca belonged to the
gens Annaea. But all that the inscription can be made to prove
is that a Christian member of the gens Annaea in the third
century bore the name of "Paul," and called his son "Paulus Petrus," a
combination familiar to Christiana, but unknown to the heathen. Comp,
Friedländer, III. 535.

Pomponia Graecina, the wife of Aulus Plautius, the
conqueror of Britain, who was arraigned for "foreign superstition"
about the year 57 or 58 (though pronounced innocent by her husband),
and led a life of continual sorrow till her death in 83, was probably
the first Christian lady of the Roman nobility, the predecessor of the
ascetic Paula and Eustochium, the companions of Jerome.511511 Here Christianity has been
inferred from the vague description of Tacitus, Ann. XIII. 32.
See Friedländer III. 534; Lightfoot, p. 21; Northcote and
Brownlow, I. 82 sq. Harnack, p. 263. The inference is confirmed by the
discovery of the gravestone of a Pomponius Graecinus and other
members of the same family, in the very ancient crypt of Lucina, near
the catacomb of St. Callistus. De Rossi conjectures that Lucina was the
Christian name of Pomponia Graecina. But Renan doubts this,
L’Antech., p. 4, note 2. Claudia
and Pudens, from whom Paul sends greetings (2 Tim. 4:21), have, by an
ingenious conjecture, been identified with the couple of that name, who
are respectfully mentioned by Martial in his epigrams; but this is
doubtful.512512 Plumptre, l.c. Martial,
a Spaniard by birth, came to Rome a.d.
66. A generation later two cousins of the Emperor
Domitian (81–96), T. Flavius Clemens, consul (in 95),
and his wife, Flavia Domitilla, were accused of "atheism, " that is, of
Christianity, and condemned, the husband to death, the wife to exile
(a.d. 96).513513 Sueton., Domit. 15; Dion
Cass., 67, 14; Euseb., H. E. III. 18. Recent excavations in the
catacomb of Domitilla, near that of Callistus, establish the fact that
an entire branch of the Flavian family had embraced the Christian
faith. Such a change was wrought within fifty or sixty years after
Christianity had entered Rome.514514 De Rossi, Bullett. for
1865, 1874 and 1875; Lightfoot, St. Clement of Rome, Append.,
257 sq., Harnack, 266-269.

483 See some of these eulogistic
descriptions in Friedländer, I. 9, who says that the
elements which produced this overwhelming impression were "the
enormous, ever changing turmoil of a population from all lands, the
confusing and intoxicating commotion of a truly cosmopolitan
intercourse, the number and magnificence of public parks and buildings,
and the immeasurable extent of the city." Of the Campagna he says, p.
10: "Wo sich jetzt eine
ruinenerfüllte Einöde gegen das Albanesergebirge
hinerstreckt, über der Fieberluft brütet, war
damals eine durchaus gesunde, überall angebaute, von Leben
wimmelden Strassen durchschnittene Ebene."See Strabo, v. 3, 12

484 Friedländer, I. 54
sqq., by a combination of certain data, comes to the conclusion that
Rome numbered under Augustus (A. U. 749) 668,600 people, exclusive of
slaves, and 70 or 80 years later from one and a half to two
millions.

486 By Renan,
L’Antechrist, p. 7; Friedländer, I.
310, 372; and Harnack, l.c., p. 253. But Hausrath,
l.c., III. 384, assumes 40,000 Jews in Rome under
Augustus, 60,000 under Tiberius. We know from Josephus that 8,000 Roman
Jews accompanied a deputation of King Herod to Augustus (Ant.
XVII. 11, 1), and that 4,000 Jews were banished by Tiberius to the
mines of Sardinia (XVIII. 3, 5; comp. Tacitus, Ann. II. 85). But
these data do not justify a very definite calculation.

490 "Poppaea Sabina, the wife of
Otho, was the fairest woman of her time, and with the charms of beauty
she combined the address of an accomplished intriguer. Among the
dissolute women of imperial Rome she stands preëminent.
Originally united to Rufius Crispinus, she allowed herself to be
seduced by Otho, and obtained a divorce in order to marry him.
Introduced by this new connection to the intimacy of Nero, she soon
aimed at a higher elevation. But her husband was jealous and vigilant,
and she herself knew how to allure the young emperor by alternate
advances and retreats, till, in the violence of his passion, he put his
friend out of the way by dismissing him to the government of Lusitania.
Poppaea suffered Otho to depart without a sigh. She profited by his
absence to make herself more than ever indispensable to her paramour,
and aimed, with little disguise, at releasing herself from her union
and supplanting Octavia, by divorce or even death." Merivale, Hist.
of the Romans, VI. 97. Nero accidentally kicked Poppaea to death
when in a state of pregnancy (65), and pronounced her eulogy from the
rostrum. The senate decreed divine honors to her. Comp. Tac.
Ann. XIII. 45, 46; XVI. 6; Suet., Nero, 35.

491 "Victi victoribus leges dederunt."Quoted by Augustin (De Civit. Dei, VI. 11) from a lost
work, De Superstitionibus. This word received a singular illustration a few years
after Seneca’s death, when Berenice, the daughter of
King Agrippa, who had heard the story of Paul’s
conversion at Caesarea (Acts 25:13, 23), became the acknowledged
mistress first of Vespasianus and then of his son Titus, and presided
in the palace of the Caesars. Titus promised to marry her, but was
obliged, by the pressure of public opinion, to dismiss the incestuous
adulteress. "Dimisit invitus invitam." Sueton. Tit., c.
7; Tacit. Hist., II. 81.

492 The history of the Roman Ghetto
(the word is derived from ﬠדּגָ, caedo, to cut
down, comp. Isa. 10:33; 14:12; 15:2; Jer. 48:25, 27, etc., presents a
curious and sad chapter in the annals of the papacy. The fanatical Pope
Paul IV. (1555-’59) caused it to be walled in and shut
out from all intercourse with the Christian world, declaring in the
bull Cum nimis: "It is most absurd and unsuitable that the Jews,
whose own crime has plunged them into everlasting slavery, under the
plea that Christian magnanimity allows them, should presume to dwell
and mix with Christians, not bearing any mark of distinction, and
should have Christian servants, yea even buy houses." Sixtus V. treated
the Jews kindly on the plea that they were "the family from which
Christ came;" but his successors, Clement VIII., Clement XI., and
Innocent XIII., forbade them all trade except that in old clothes,
rags, and iron. Gregory XIII. (1572-’85), who rejoiced
over the massacre of St. Bartholomew, forced the Jews to hear a sermon
every week, and on every Sabbath police agents were sent to the Ghetto
to drive men, women, and children into the church with scourges, and to
lash them if they paid no attention! This custom was only abolished by
Pius IX., who revoked all the oppressive laws against the Jews. For
this and other interesting information about the Ghetto see Augustus J.
C. Hare, Walks in Rome, 1873, 165 sqq., and a pamphlet of Dr.
Philip, a Protestant missionary among the Jews in Rome, On the
Ghetto, Rome, 1874.

495 Given up even by Roman Catholic
historians in Germany, but still confidently reasserted by Drs.
Northcote and Brownlow, l.c. I., p. 79, who naively state that
Peter went to Rome with Cornelius and the Italian band in 42. Comp. on
this subject §26, pp. 254 sqq.

496Rom. 16:7, "Salute Andronicus
and Junias (or Junia), my kinsmen, and my fellow-prisoners who ... have
been in Christ before me." If Junias is masculine, it must be a
contraction from Junianus, as Lucas from Lucanus. But Chrysostom,
Grotius, Reiche, and others take it as a female, either the wife or
sister of Andronicus.

497 Sueton., Claud., c. 25:
"Judaeos impulsore Chresto assidue
tumultuantes Roma expulit." The Romans
often confounded Christus (the Anointed)
andChrestus (from χρηστός, useful, good), and called the
Christians χρηστιανοί, Chrestiani. Compare the French form
chrétien. Justin Martyr uses this etymological error
as an argument against the persecution of the Christians for the sake
of their name. Apol. I., c. 4 (I. p. 10, ed. Otto): Χριστιανοὶ
εἶναι
κατηγορούμεθα,
τὸ δὲ
χρηστὸν
μισεῖσθαι
οὐ
δίκαιον. He knew, however, the true origin
of the name of Christ, I.c. 12: Ἰησοῦς
Χριστός, ἀφ’
οὖ καὶ
τὸ
Χριστιανοὶ
ἐπονομάζεσθαι
ἐσχήκαμεν
. Tertullian says that
the name Christus was almost invariably mispronounced
Chrestus bythe heathen. Apol., c. 3; Ad Nat., I.3.
This mistake continued to be made down to the fourth century,
Lactantius, Instit. Div., IV. 7, and is found also in Latin
inscriptions. Renan derives the name Christianus from the Latin (like
Herodian, Matt. 22:16, Pompejani, Caesareani), as
the derivation from the Greek would require Χρίστειος
(Les âpotres, p. 234). Lightfoot
denies this, and refers to Σαρδιανὸς, Τραλλιανός(Philippians, p.16, note 1); but Renan would regard
these nouns as Latinisms like Ἀσιανός
(Acts 20:4, Strabo, etc.). Antioch, where the name
originated (Acts 11:26), had long before been Romanized and was famous
for its love of nicknames. Renan thinks that the term originated with
the Roman authority as an appellation de police. The other two
passages of the N.T. in which it occurs, Acts 26:28; 1 Pet. 4:16, seem
to imply contempt and dislike, and so it is used by Tacitus and
Suetonius. But what was originally meant by the heathen to be a name of
derision has become the name of the highest honor. For what can be
nobler and better than to be a true Christian, that is, a follower of
Christ. It is a remarkable fact that the name " Jesuit,"which was not
in use till the sixteenth century, has become, by the misconduct of the
order which claimed it, a term of reproach even in Roman Catholic
countries; while the term " Christian"embraces proverbially all that is
noble, and good, and Christ-like.

498Acts 18:2; Rom. 16:3. An
unconverted Jew would not have taken the apostle under his roof and
into partnership. The appellation .Ἰουδαῖος
often signifies merely the nationality (comp. Gal.
2:13-15). The name Aquila, i.e., Eagle, Adler, is still common among
Jews, like other high sounding animal names (Leo, Leopardus,
Löwe, Löwenherz, Löwenstein, etc.).
The Greek Ἀκύλας was a transliteration of the Latin, and is probably
slightly altered in Onkelos, the traditional author of one of the
Targums, whom the learned Emmanuel Deutsch identifies with Aquila
(Ἀκύλας, סליקﬠ in
the Talmud), the Greek translator of the Old Testament, a convert to
Judaism in the reign of Hadrian, and supposed nephew of the emperor.
Liter. Remains (N. York, 1874), pp. 337-340. The name of
his wife, Priscilla (the diminutive form of Prisca), " probably
indicates a connection with the gens of the Prisci, who
appear in the earliest stages of Roman history, and supplied a long
series of praetors and consuls." Plumptre on Acts,
18:2.

500Acts 28:13. Puteoli was, next
after Ostia, the chief harbor of Western Italy and the customary port
for the Alexandrian grain ships; hence the residence of a large number
of Jewish and other Oriental merchants and sailors. The whole
population turned out when the grain fleet from Alexandria arrived.
Sixteen pillars still remain of the mole on which St. Paul landed. See
Friedländer, II. 129 sq.; III. 511, and Howson and Spence on
Acts 28:13.

501Acts 28:15. The Forum of Appius
(the probable builder of the famous road called after him) is denounced
by Horace as a wretched town "filled with sailors and scoundrel
tavern-keepers." Tres Tabernae was a town of more importance, mentioned
in Cicero’s letters, and probably located on the
junction of the road from Antium with the Via Appia, near the modern
Cisterna. The distances from Rome southward are given in the Antonine
Itinerary as follows: "to Aricia, 16 miles; to Tres Tabernae, 17 miles;
to Appii Forum, 10 miles."

506 Comp. my Hist. Ap.
Ch., p. 296 sqq. Dr. Baur attempted to revolutionize the
traditional opinion of the preponderance of the Gentile element, and to
prove that the Roman church consisted almost exclusively of Jewish
converts, and that the Epistle to the Romans is a defense of Pauline
universalism against Petrine particularism. He was followed by
Schwegler, Reuss, Mangold, Hilgenfeld, Volkmar, Holsten, Holtzmann.,
and also to some extent by Thiersch and Sabatier. But he was opposed by
Olshausen, Tholuck, Philippi, De Wette, Meyer, Schott, Hofmann, in
favor of the other view. Beyschlag proposed a compromise to the effect
that the majority, in conformity with Paul’s express
statements, were Gentile Christians, but mostly ex-proselytes, and
hence shared Judaizing convictions. This view has been approved by
Schürer and Schultz. Among the latest and ablest discussions
are those of Weizsäcker and Godet, who oppose the views both
of Baur and Beyschlag. The original nucleus was no doubt Jewish, but
the Gentile element soon outgrew it, as is evident from the Epistle
itself, from the last chapter of Acts, from the Neronian persecution,
and other facts. Paul had a right to regard the Roman congregation as
belonging to his own field of labor. The Judaizing tendency was not
wanting, as we see from the 14th and 15th chapters, and from allusions
in the Philippians and Second Timothy, but it had not the character of
a bitter personal antagonism to Paul, as in Galatia, although in the
second century we find also a malignant type of Ebionism in Rome, where
all heretics congregated.

508 Lightfoot, l.c., p. 20.
See especially the investigations of Caspari, in his Quellen zur Geschichte des
Taufsymbols, vol. III. (1875), 267-466.
According to Friedländer, I. 142, 481, Greek was the
favorite language at the imperial court, and among lovers.

509Phil. 1:13; 4: 22. The
πραιτώριον
embraces the officers as well as the soldiers of the
imperial regiments; οἱ
εκ τῆς
καίσαρος
οἰκίας may include high functionaries and courtiers as well as slaves
and freedmen, but the latter is more probable. The twenty names of the
earlier converts mentioned in Rom. 16 coincide largely with those in
the Columbaria of the imperial household on the Appian way.
Comp. Lightfoot, Philipp., p. 169 sqq., Plumptre, Excursus to
his Com. on Acts, and Harnack, l.c., pp. 258 sq.
Harnack makes it appear that the two trusty servants of the Roman
church, Claudius Ephebus and Valerius Bito, mentioned in the Epistle of
Clement to the Corinthians, c. 63, belonged to the household of the
emperor Claudius.

510 See above, § 29, p.
279, especially the essay of Lightfoot quoted there. Harnack
(l.c., p. 260) and Friedländer regard the
acquaintance of Paul with Seneca as very improbable, Plumptre as
probable. An epitaph from the third century was found in Ostia which
reads: D M. M. Anneo. Paulo. Petro. M. Anneus. Paulus. Filio. Carissimo. See De Rossi in
the Bullet. di archeol. christ., 1867, pp. 6 sq., and Renan,
L’Antechrist, p. 12. Seneca belonged to the
gens Annaea. But all that the inscription can be made to prove
is that a Christian member of the gens Annaea in the third
century bore the name of "Paul," and called his son "Paulus Petrus," a
combination familiar to Christiana, but unknown to the heathen. Comp,
Friedländer, III. 535.

511 Here Christianity has been
inferred from the vague description of Tacitus, Ann. XIII. 32.
See Friedländer III. 534; Lightfoot, p. 21; Northcote and
Brownlow, I. 82 sq. Harnack, p. 263. The inference is confirmed by the
discovery of the gravestone of a Pomponius Graecinus and other
members of the same family, in the very ancient crypt of Lucina, near
the catacomb of St. Callistus. De Rossi conjectures that Lucina was the
Christian name of Pomponia Graecina. But Renan doubts this,
L’Antech., p. 4, note 2.

512 Plumptre, l.c. Martial,
a Spaniard by birth, came to Rome a.d.
66.